This blog is a great opportunity to share ideas about ways to
transform schooling as we know it, to help all students realise their
talents, passions and dreams. Be great to hear from anyone out there! Feel free to add a comment to Bruce's Blog and enter e-mail to receive postings

Friday, October 11, 2013

Educational nonsense from the US and the UK - Weekend Readings

By Allan Alach

After a lovely break in England, I’ve returned to the fray. The
nonsense didn’t take a break while I was away!

‘Value-added assessment is all the rage in school reform
these days. It involves the use of complicated formulas that plug in student
standardized test scores to try to determine how much “value” a teacher has
added to that result.’

One of the curses of
modern times is that of teacher performance pay, under a variety of disguises.
Teachers in England were on strike last week, over this very matter, and we can
expect it to keep reappearing until GERM is eliminated.

English journalist George
Monbiot is always a good read and this is no exception.

Measure the value of this!!

‘What is the best way to knacker a child’s education?
Force him or her to spend too long in the classroom. An overview of research
into outdoor education by King’s College London found that children who spend
time learning in natural environments “perform better in reading, mathematics,
science and social studies.”’

‘The evil I speak of is what is happening in schools to
children in the name of teaching them to read. All of the forces of evil are
involved: Greed of publishers and profiteers, greed of politicians who use
literacy to attack schools and stir up fear among their constituents,
amorality of school board members and administrators. But especially evil are
those whose fundamentalist views of literacy, learning, and schooling are being
enacted into laws that are designed to root out heresy- anyone who does not
share their fundamentalist belief- and create an atmosphere of fear and
intimidation for any who challenge their doctrine.’

Bruce Hammonds never sleeps…
here’s a selection from the zillions Bruce sends me….

Building
a District Culture to Foster Innovation (via Bruce Hammonds)

Not rocket science again,
and not necessarily completely new, but oh how we have forgotten this…..

Factory model of schooling wrong

“The
factory school model of the 20th century [was] designed to mimic what factories
needed in their workers,” Ms. Moran said. “Now, [the workforce] wants kids who
can really work through issues to generate solutions that work without being
dependent on someone at the top to solve it for them.

“Are
you running into snags when it comes to bringing project-based learning into
your teaching practices? Maybe you've been trying to incorporate PBL into your
classroom and you're stuck on ideas of how to proceed. There are some great
ideas to move you forward in the following article by the staff of TeachThought
.... read on and be enlightened! ”

“As students
progress through the 21st century, the essential skill set they must possess
has shifted. Students must develop critical thinking skills if they are to
succeed in a globalized, digital world. This infographic produced by Mentoring
Minds provides teachers with a daily reminder of the skills students must
cultivate in their classrooms.”

“According
to Prof. Yong Zhao of the University of Oregon, our focus on testing only
succeeds in educating students using the factory mentality that was the basis
for the Industrial Age educational model—a recipe for disaster in the digital
age. Read more in the following NZ Herald article by Nicholas Jones.”